David Baldacci - The Sixth Man

“Megan and I use computers, obviously, but he never cared to. Pen and paper and a Dictaphone were good enough for him.”

“And his calendar?”

“I kept an appointment calendar on the computer for him and would print out a copy every week. He also had a Daily Planner he carried with him.”

Michelle nodded. And that Daily Planner would now be in the hands of Agent Murdock. Along with the rest of Bergin’s papers.

“Do you know if he ever e-mailed or texted from his cell phone?”

“I seriously doubt he knew how. He preferred talking on the phone.”

Michelle went back to his office and noted the jar of pens and pencils and stacks of legal pads on the desk.

Definitely old-fashioned. But then there’s nothing wrong with that.

She turned her attention to the wooden file cabinets, the closet, a trench coat that was hanging on a wall peg, and lastly a small oak credenza.

After an hour of searching she came away with nothing helpful.

She spent another hour questioning Hilary. He had not confided much to her about the Roy case, and Michelle could tell this had somewhat irked the lady.

“He’s usually very open about his cases,” Hilary said. “We worked together, after all.”

“And you do the billing?”

“Absolutely. Which made it strange why he never mentioned to me who had retained him to work for Edgar Roy. How were we to be paid, after all? I mentioned to Sean that Mr. Bergin might have taken the case pro bono, but the more I thought about it the less likely I think that is.”

“Why?”

“He has a small practice. He’s made a good income over the years, but a case like this requires a lot of time and expenses. It would have taxed his resources too much.”

“Well, it’s a high-profile case. Maybe he was doing it for the notoriety.”

Hilary made a face. “Mr. Bergin was not into notoriety. He was a very well-respected lawyer.”

“Well, maybe the client made it a condition of the retainer that he couldn’t tell anyone. Do you have bank records? There might be a deposit in there that didn’t go through you.”

Hilary clicked some keys on her computer. “We maintain an account with a local bank. All funds from the practice go in there. I have online access, so let me check.”

She looked at various screens and then shook her head. “I made every one of these deposits going back six months.”

“Might have been cash.”

“No, there are no cash deposits listed.”

“Did he keep another account?”

Hilary looked offended by even the suggestion. “If he did, he never told me about it.”

“And there’s obviously no retainer agreement in the files for the Roy case?”

“No. I already checked that.”

“But if Edgar Roy didn’t hire him, and from what I’ve seen of the man it’s highly doubtful he had the capacity to do so, someone with a power of attorney or something like that had to do it. You can’t just appoint yourself as someone’s lawyer. A court has to do that and only under certain conditions.” She stared at Hilary. “Are you sure that wasn’t the case here?”

“No. If the court had done so there would be a record of that in the file. Mr. Bergin has served as a public defender assisting indigent clients, but not in this case. And I don’t believe Mr. Roy was indigent. He had a job and a home.”

“Yeah, he’s just comatose. I’m not sure in this instance which one is worse.”

“I can’t speak to that.”

“Maybe a family member retained Bergin? Roy’s parents are dead. Any siblings? Sean couldn’t remember the media mentioning any.”

“I really didn’t get into that with Mr. Bergin,” said Hilary demurely.

“But weren’t you curious when he started representing the man? No retainer agreement? No payments?”

Hilary looked uncomfortable at this query. “I must admit that I thought it unusual. But I would never have questioned Mr. Bergin over a professional matter.”

“But it was also a business matter. A retainer agreement and getting paid for services is important, too. He’s running a business, after all, and you’re part of that business.”

“Again, I never questioned it. Mr. Bergin certainly would know what he was doing. And it was his practice after all. I… I was just his employee.”

Michelle studied the woman. But you wanted to be more. Okay, I get that.

“He never let anything slip about who might have hired him? The financial arrangement?”

“No.”

“So the client never came here?”

“Well, I’m not here 24/7, but no one like that, no, at least while I was present.”

“So there were no clients in from the time he started representing Edgar Roy?”

Hilary looked confused. “I don’t understand.”

“If it was a new person you wouldn’t necessarily know why they were here until they met with Bergin.”

“Oh, right, I see what you mean. Well, with new clients they typically make an inquiry by phone. I would ask them their personal information and what the matter related to. Mr. Bergin doesn’t do all aspects of law so I wouldn’t want people wasting their time coming here.”

“You serve as a filter.”

“Exactly. Then they make an appointment if he can do what they need. And if they come to an understanding I would provide them with a retainer agreement.”

“The same day they’re here?”

“Sometimes. Or if it was out of the ordinary and Mr. Bergin had to revise the standard document, it might be sent out a few days later to the client’s address. Mr. Bergin was a stickler for that. No work was done until the retainer was signed.”

“Except in the case of Edgar Roy, apparently.”

“Apparently,” sniffed Hilary.

“Anyone call here asking for Bergin you didn’t recognize?”

“Well, we get a lot of calls. Most of the people I know, of course. Some I don’t. But nothing like that sticks out in my mind.”

“Did anyone come in to meet with Bergin around the time he started representing Roy, anyone who you didn’t send out a retainer agreement for?”

“Not that I can remember, no.”

“But like you said, you’re not here 24/7. He could have met with the person during nonbusiness hours. Or they could have called in when you weren’t here.”

“Certainly. He could come and go whenever he wanted.”

“What can you tell me about Megan Riley?”

“She came to work here just over two months ago. Mr. Bergin had been saying for a long time that he needed to get an associate. That he wouldn’t be practicing forever. And the workload was pretty substantial. There was more than enough for a second attorney. And, of course, he was representing Mr. Roy by that time, and it was demanding a lot of his attention. He needed some help.”

“Did he have a lot of applicants for the job?”

“Several. But Megan and he had chemistry, right from the beginning. You could see that.”

“You like Megan?”

“She’s very nice and works very hard. Now, she’s not very experienced, so she makes some mistakes, but that’s to be expected. Mr. Bergin was being a fine mentor to her, smoothing out some of the wrinkles.” She paused.

“What?” asked Michelle.

“Mr. Bergin and his wife never had any children. I think he looked on Megan as the daughter or even granddaughter he never had. That was probably another reason he brought her on. The other applicants were older.”

“That makes sense. Bergin apparently talked to her on the day he… on the day it happened. Did she mention that to you?”

“No. But if it was after hours she probably wouldn’t have. She went straight to court the next day, and I didn’t get in touch with her until she called afterward. That’s when I passed along Sean’s message.”